Grocery stores, hardware stores and other merchants recently began using flexible plastic bags as containers for customers' purchases. The transition from paper bags to plastic bags can be attributed to many reasons, including economies of cost and storage and transportation space, and the facts that plastic bags have handles and do not rip or tear as easily as paper bags. Whatever the causes for this change, plastic bags differ from paper bags in one major respect: They cannot support themselves while being filled with merchandise. Accordingly, plastic bags require merchants to utilize bag dispensers to store such bags and to hold them open in a convenient manner while being filled with merchandise.
The number of manufacturers of plastic bags and the varieties of types and sizes of plastic bags produced increases with the increasing popularity of the bags. As a result, retailers are frequently tempted to change bag suppliers and therefore typically the sizes of bags they buy. A given bag dispenser, however, optimally accommodates only a narrow range of bag sizes. A dispenser that is too tall for a bag causes the walls of the bag to come together as the bag is being filled. It is thus more difficult to arrange items in the bag in a manner that protects delicate goods such as fruit from being crushed while maximizing use of space in the bag. A similar problem results when a bag is spread too widely or narrowly. On the other hand, if the dispenser is too short, it is difficult to load the bag to full capacity.
Shopping bag dispensers formed of wire are conventional, as shown, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,122 issued Apr. 22, 1980 to Christie. That patent discloses a three-sided support rack. The sides support the walls of the shopping bag being filled and have at their upper extremities suspending means about which the bag handles may be placed. Such a structure fails, however, to assist in keeping the walls of a shopping bag separated while the bag is being filled.
One technique of maintaining flexible bag walls separated from one another while the bag is being filled is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,361 issued June 1, 1982 to McClellan. That patent also discloses a wire formed rack. Top portions of each side of the rack, however, are fitted with rotatable members which may be swung down into the interior of a bag after its handles have been placed about the suspending means. Although the McClellan invention is aimed primarily at providing a system for reusing plastic bags at home for garbage collection or similar purposes, it seems to provide one answer to keeping shopping bag walls separated in a grocery store or similar environment where bags must be quickly and efficiently filled with merchandise. However, the McClellan system requires additional efforts by the person filling the bag to position the rotatable members and thus reduces speed and efficiency which are highly desirable in store applications.